I recently found out that there is something called a crypto hypebeast. And no, it's not a Supreme bricklayer who gets paid through the blockchain. Nor, disappointingly, is it someone who shops on Grailed with Ethereum. It's an entirely new subset of menswear obsessive. But this is not your regular guy who lines up outside of Supreme like it's a club or a Balenciaga Triple S-sniffing fuccboi. Wearing Supreme, Balenciaga and their ilk is too on-the-nose. Rather, it's a label for a new breed of menswear fan who prefers a more subtle flex.
So what exactly is a crypto hypebeast? According to the popular Facebook group High Fashion Talk, it's someone similar to a more 'mainstream hypebeast,' the main difference being a crypto hypebeast has a flavor for more luxury designers, yet still buys them more for the label rather than because it's quality. The term was apparently coined by Alex Rajah and is really anyone who posts on Style Forum. Similar to a Jay-Z fan after the release of "Empire State of Mind," a crypto hypebeast is a Raf Simons fan who has never heard of The Fourth Sex, a Balenciaga disciple who cannot recall the sad, marble-cracked years of Alexander Wang's tenure.
